Month: February 2008

Willie P Bennett is dead, at home, in Peterborough

I must thank Chipper for bearing me these sad tidings.

Two mornings after Keith was born, Willie P phoned me and asked if he could come see the child, having received word from Paul that his firstborn had arrived.

He showed up reeking of cigarettes and alcohol.  My mother, radiating primate female on guard, watched him closely.   But it was merely a man lying on our bed and absorbing the experience of being with a tiny newborn child, which he did for the best part of an hour.

I had another anecdote, but I’ll leave it for the memorial service.
One time, Willie P told us a story about how he got an allergic reaction so badly – while on tour – that the hives started going down his throat.  With great difficulty he got himself to a hospital in either Edmonton or Calgary and as he sat in the exam room waiting for a doctor, the curtain kept getting pulled back and there’d be another med student standing there goggle-eyed.  He or she would say, “They’re RIGHT, you ARE the worst case of hives they’ve ever seen!” and then the curtain would close again.

He wrote a lot – a LOT – of songs, good ones.  “Willie’s Diamond Joe” is one of my favourite tunes, and “Why’d I Go Zydeco” is on my playlist.  He wrote “Music in your eyes” for a member of Paul’s family.  He used to show up at dinner time at Paul’s mum’s place all the time.
In later years he played mandolin.  Everything is connected.  Rest in peace, Willie the P.

Long trip home

I got on the ferry at 5:30 due to a volume delay (I’d been aiming for 4), and cleared my door at home at precisely 9 pm.  I then drew a bath and contemplated my weekend past including all the movies, teed up a date with the Luddite for next week, and talked to another friend on the phone for a bit.  Then we went gah! it’s 11 pm and we both gotta work tomorrow, and so to bed.  It’s Presidents Day so the phone should be slow.  I have a pretty bad cough; there’s been a doozy going round the office.

My aunt Mary picked me up a copy of Eric Frank Russell’s WASP, a book so full of richness that I re-read it at least every couple of years, and have done so since I was about 11.  Wonderful book.  When I write, I try really hard to write like Eric Frank Russell.

More packing? More packing.

Yesterday was pretty steady. We knocked off around 4 and had dinner at the folks’ place, then cruised back here after stopping off for Apricot Ale (link removed for safety) which is rather delightful stuff, and watched the EPIC director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven (which I loved but I can see why it was panned) and then the little gem The Secret Life of Words. Heartshattering and beautiful – that was the movie which got Sarah Polley acquainted with Julie Christie – and we all know how that turned out.

Consensus definition (from the work of Naughty Scotty (M. Scott Peck))

“Consensus is a group decision – which some members may not feel is the best decision but which they can all live with, support, and commit themselves to not undermine – arrived at without voting, through a process whereby the issues are fully aired, all members feel that they have been adequately heard, in which everyone has equal power and responsibility, and different degrees of influence by virtue of individual stubbornness or charisma are avoided, so that all are satisfied with the process. The process requires the members to be emotionally present and engaged; frank in a loving, mutually respectful manner; sensitive to each other; to be selfless, dispassionate, and capable of emptying themselves; and possessing a paradoxical awareness of both people and time, including knowing when the solution is satisfactory, and that it is time to stop and not re-open the discussion until such time that the group determines a need for revision.” [© 1988, Valley Diagnostic, Medical, and Surgical Clinic, Inc. of Harlingen, Texas and the Foundation for Community Encouragement, Knoxville, Tennessee, reprinted with permission.]

More packing

More briefing?  More briefing!

Fast forward to 4:55 it that’s the audio what you want…..

I have a cough and cold but I’m ignoring it.  Today, more packing and maybe more movies.  After we knocked off yesterday, we watched three movies.  Radio Days (it was on my lifetime list and MAN did I enjoy it), Eulogy (OMG what a great movie) and Eastern Promises (fabulous movie, and the naked fight in the bathhouse was all it was billed to be and more).

Jeff has provisionally agreed to the Friday Night Veg-In being reinstituted in our new home.  The Friday night Veg-In will be two Fridays a month.  You show up after work with whatever you are planning to drink (or contribute to the beer jar) and you get a) one free meal b) one free movie c) adult conversation…  That’s the last 4th Friday of the month.  Second Friday will be kid friendly; depending on the age of the kids we’ll either watch in the living room or I can ride herd on kids in the guest bedroom or depending on the weather we can go play in the park across the street.  Can’t let my grandmother in waiting skills get all rusty. I can’t even remember these days whether you’re supposed to swing a toddler by it’s arm or it’s leg.

No, I’m not trying to scare anyone with the grandmother comment.  Last I checked, Keith was not situated to provide me with grandchildren, and Katie shudders from head to foot in a fashion only to be described as Grand Guignol-esque if you even breathe a hint about the possibility.  Dang, it’s almost ten o’clock, time to attack the boxing situation again.

I’m sleeping so well I’m wondering if I should just say screw it and buy a softer mattress.  I sleep better on a soft sprung mattress than on foam, that’s for sure.   I slept like a log in the DR and that mattress was as soft as a waterbed, damned near.

Anyway, I’m having a lovely time..

It is all connected

Cats!!!

Catherine told me about Selkirk Rex kitties.  I couldn’t find the one she was telling me about so this one will have to do.  I love the fur, and the enormous eyes.  Then she told me that there’s a video of a kitten getting into a Rottie’s face; I couldn’t find that either but check out the following.
Cause cats pwning dogs never gets old…. 

Okay, more disparity in size, same principle. 

Change of pace:

Yeah, I don’t like Cosmo either.

The Luddite sent me this one…

A duo performing I WILL SURVIVE in a way that will RENDER IT IMPOSSIBLE for you to ever hear that song without snickering, ever, again.

I am streaming with tears, having watched this lovely cross post from the Luddite. What’s Opera Doc brought into the 21st century.

I’m waiting for my biscotti to cool.  I’ve done all of my valentine cards and now I just need a quick shower and I’ll be ready for work.  Sundae this afternoon in the caf!!!